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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24382015">Millicent: Biography of a Ship's Cat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazel_Redflower/pseuds/Hazel_Redflower'>Hazel_Redflower</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Armitage Hux Has Feelings, Armitage Hux Has Issues, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Gen, General Starkiller is a kindhearted cat owner, It's written as if it were one anyway, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, biography</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:48:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,802</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24382015</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazel_Redflower/pseuds/Hazel_Redflower</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>General Starkiller had a cat. </p><p>This is her story.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Armitage Hux &amp; Millicent the Cat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Millicent: Biography of a Ship's Cat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Millicent was perhaps the only living creature that General Armitage Hux ever loved. </p><p>He found her during the construction of Starkiller Base. She couldn’t have been more than four months old at the time, only just beginning to exert her independence and spend time away from her mother. How her ancestors came to live on that lost icy world is uncertain, but they had survived for many generations and were thriving when The First Order came from beyond the sky to reshape the planet in their image.</p><p>Orders from Supreme Leader Snoke were to strip the little planet of all extractable resources and to kill every living creature on it before beginning it’s transformation from living world to destroyer of worlds in earnest. But when the orange kitten came out from within the conifer trees that grew next to the clearing where the first transport ship had set itself down, its tail held confidently up in the air as it marched towards the ramp, curious to meet one of the odd newcomers who had just exited…. Hux did not unholster his sidearm and shot it dead as he had been instructed to do. </p><p>He glanced about conspicuously and upon seeing that none of his fellows were watching him, crouched down and coaxed the kitten closer towards him. He ran gloved hands through her thick fur and stared into a pair of green eyes that startlingly reminded him of his own. The kitten arched into his touch and purred, she gave the sweetest little mew when he picked her up to examine her further. And as she snuggled in for a nap whilst held in his arms, Hux fell in love. </p><p>Armitage Hux’s name would go down in infamy just a few short years later, he would forever be remembered as the man who ordered the deaths of several billion people in one fell swoop. But he opened his long dormant heart to a kitten that day. As he slipped the young cat who would become Millicent underneath his greatcoat, he mused to himself that having a pet would be a fine revenge on his recently deceased father’s legacy. </p><p>The First Order did not endorse handing out names to new recruits, but Hux named his new companion Millicent. It was a good name, it’s meaning was “Strong in work” in an ancient language that Hux had taken as an elective class during his senior Academy year. He named her for her previous home in a way, for he would need to commit strongly to the work needed to transform the planet into the vision he had for it in the coming years. </p><p>Millicent was the only living creature who left Starkiller Base alive, no others were spared.<br/>
--------</p><p>Millicent was a much loved pet. </p><p>Adored by her owner, she had free roam of his quarters and meat rich rations portioned out to her three times a day. Hux was gone often, usually busy over-seeing the construction of the base, but he returned to her every evening. After a typical sixteen hour workday, the young man very much looked forward to spending his leisure time with his cat. Millicent enjoyed long brushing sessions, batting at Hux’s boot laces and stealing either his socks or hat. </p><p>She brought love and joy into a life that had previously offered little of either to Hux. She was also an excellent destressor! Stroking her fur, listening to her purr and laughing at her silly antics did wonders for alleviating the immense amount of pressure Hux was under and the tension that he felt daily. </p><p>She could be counted upon to jump into his lap if he was feeling morose, to make him chase her around until he was breathless and to sit on his shoulders to keep him company as he went over paperwork and plans late into the night. She was a good pet, she fulfilled all of her duties with flying colors and Hux never ever regretted keeping her. </p><p>But Millicent longed for something more. </p><p>-----------</p><p>As she grew from a lanky kitten into a pretty adult cat, so did her desire to roam. </p><p>She was curious about the world beyond the metal doors her owner disappeared behind every morning and occasionally she got the urge that there was something that she needed to find, but she never could find what she was looking for in Hux’s quarters. So perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised Hux as much as it did the first time she dashed between his legs in a bid for freedom. The rank climbing young man caught her quickly, scooped her up into his arms and placed her back into the safety of his quarters.  </p><p>But Hux was somewhat distracted for the rest of the day. Was his beloved Milly unhappy? She was always so delighted to see him when he got home! She seemed to spend every minute that he was off-duty with him! Perhaps she was lonely while he was gone? Nothing to be done about that, he had read the report himself last week. No more cats lived on Starkiller Base. The last few holdouts had finally been exterminated. </p><p>And he could hardly go off planet for a companion or even send for one, officers weren’t permitted pets. Millicent was a secret -One that he harbored close to his heart- and he had no intentions of disclosing her existence to anyone. It was simply too risky and he would not put her safety in jeopardy. </p><p>So that night, while Millicent lay kneading contently on his lap, Hux drew up plans. Not his usual engineering plans though, these plans contained various devices that he hoped would keep Millicent entertained throughout the day while he was away. He couldn’t alleviate her loneliness entirely, but perhaps with enough distraction, he could minimize it.  </p><p>Hux created and installed a good many things to keep Millicent happy. Shelving was placed all over his quarters walls so that she could leap from place to place, he built a large perch for her to climb all over, he had a small window put in the bedroom so Millicent could watch the world go by, he even reprogrammed an old mouse droid to whiz about the rooms at random several times a day in the hopes that his Milly would chase it!  </p><p>Millicent was a very entertained kitty indeed, she tried out everything that Hux had designed for her and made sure that he knew she approved. </p><p>She made another escape attempt a few weeks later. </p><p>--------</p><p>Millicent succeeded in escaping. </p><p>She cleverly waited until Hux had turned away after petting her for the last time that morning, rushed past his side while the door was closing and merrily ran down the hall. In the opposite direction that Hux usually took to his station naturally. As Hux chased her through a maze of hallways, Millicent had never been more thrilled in her life!  </p><p>Then as she turned a corner, she suddenly skidded to a stop. Millicent shook her little head in confusion and looked up to discover that she had crashed into a gleaming white being! She had never seen anything quite like it before. It looked nothing like her Hux, but she was nothing if not a friendly cat. As she rubbed against its legs and purred, the Stormtrooper aimed its regulation blaster. Orders were to exterminate every pest on the planet and here was one inside the base! </p><p>Fortunately for Millicent’s sake, before she could be blasted into oblivion, Hux came around the corner. He very nearly screamed at the sight he witnessed! But he didn’t even think, he merely reacted. He made record time drawing out his sidearm and shooting the unfortunate trooper dead. </p><p>Millicent was quite startled when the white being suddenly came crashing down. As she leapt away, she heard a thump and a familiar if croaky voice. There was Hux! Right behind her! It was odd of him to be on his knees and holding his face in his hands, but Milly purred happily all the way home after he regained his composure. </p><p>Hux did not go into work that day. He took a rare sick day, citing wobbly legs and general fatigue. An investigation was launched into the mysterious death of Stormtrooper EM-1995, but nothing came of it. No evidence of the perpetrator was ever found and the cameras that should’ve been monitoring that section of the base experienced an outage before the body was found. Some odd glitch in the security system had caused the database to be erased, the technicians said. </p><p>In any case, the occupants of Starkiller Base were urged to practice caution. Patrols were doubled up over the next few weeks. Some officers even requested that their personal quarters be made more secure. </p><p>Armitage Hux was one of them. </p><p>------</p><p>The next notable event in Millicent’s life occurred a year later. </p><p>It had started out like any other day. Milly had pawed at Hux’s face at 05:00 to get him up, stared at him and meowed loudly and frequently until he fixed up her breakfast, stolen his socks and then subsequently hidden them. She hadn’t made a successful escape since the year before, but she still got the urge to try on occasion, one of which occurred that morning. </p><p>After being foiled in her latest escape plan, Millicent strolled over to the base of her favorite perch and climbed up to the spot she’d deemed “best for a nap”. Truly this was how she’d spent many of her days in the last year, as she had lost much of her kitten energy after her body went through it’s last growth spurt. </p><p>She slept deeply and peacefully until she was startled awake by the door suddenly swishing open around lunch time. </p><p>This was quite unusual! Hux never took his lunch in his quarters, he rarely ate lunch altogether! He could usually be found in his office, doing paperwork or returning comm-calls. Millicent did not know this, but she did know her owner’s schedule, so she climbed down to investigate. </p><p>Whoever was in the suite with her was quite noisy. They breathed oddly, almost as if their breathing was labored. They grunted and grumbled and complained. They stomped around all over and rummaged through every compartment and cabinet! </p><p>Millicent puzzled over all of this in ways that only a cat can, but she didn’t feel much trepidation when she came face to face with the black being. They couldn’t have been more different from her Hux, or even the white being who she could only faintly recall. They were enormous, swaddled in layers of thick fabric and had a most strange atmosphere about them.  </p><p>Millicent walked right up to them and started weaving through their legs. </p><p>She must’ve started the black being, because the next thing she knew, they had leapt away from her and she was held aloft in the air! This was the strangest thing yet! Milly rather enjoyed jumping and climbing and looking down from atop high places, but she had never hung mid-air! It felt like a jump that she hadn’t finished! That brief moment when nothing solid was underneath her paws as she leaped from place to place. </p><p>As she squirmed and tried to restart gravity's hold on her, she floated right up to the black being. For a long moment, they examined her. Millicent could almost see her reflection in their strange metal face. </p><p>Then they made a scoffing sound and as suddenly as it started, she stopped floating and flew into one of the being’s out-streched arms. They tucked her into their side and then headed straight out the door. </p><p>Millicent could smell her Hux on the black being’s strange outfit, so she did not struggle as they carried her away from Hux’s quarters. She only knew her redheaded owner as the giver of food and affection, so anyone who smelt like him must be like him. Besides, she didn’t even have the time to worry! </p><p>She saw so many new things once outside the rooms! She had only seen a few similar looking hallways on her last outing, but now, Millicent couldn’t help but be distracted by all the novel things in her sights. Shiny walls! Lots of beeping droids! Flashing buttons on consoles! And people! So many new people! She hadn’t even known so many different people could exist in the world! </p><p>As the black being that carried her turned down one last particularly long hallway, Milly craned her neck out and back, trying to keep as many of the new things and people in her sight for as long as possible. She would definitely buckle down and get to properly exploring once she was set down.  </p><p>She did not get a chance to do that. </p><p>Because as soon as she turned her head back to look up at the black being, they entered a dark, cavernous room. Her Hux was in that room! But so was this off-putting blue being, who was simply unfathomably giant and flickered strangely.  </p><p>Hux and the blue being had been in conversation beforehand, but now both were silent. Until the flickering giant suddenly boomed out a demand for an explanation. The black being hissed and spoke strange words as it carried her over to where the big blue being was, as they came to a stop in front of them (Right next to her Hux!), they bowed their head and held her out. </p><p>As the flickering face leaned down as if to study her, Millicent got a bad feeling. And as cats tend to do when presented with untrustworthy individuals, she hissed at it. </p><p>Suddenly loud laughter rang throughout! Millicent was dropped as the black being lost their grip of her to shock. Feeling rather unsettled herself, she dashed over to Hux and hid behind him. </p><p>The three humanoids in the room had a long conversation. Millicent -An expert on body language- watched Hux go from being shocked, to terrified, to relieved, to shocked again, until he suddenly turned joyful! A restrained joyful anyway. The black being took off his strange metal face to reveal a much more soft and human one, he only got angry. </p><p>Milly still didn’t like the blue being, but as her Hux swept her up and held her as he walked out of the odd room where it denned, she was pleased to be away from it. </p><p> </p><p>What Millicent didn’t know is that the Master of the Knights of Ren, sensing that her owner was hiding something and frustrated at not being able to get Hux to confess what it was, had entered Hux’s personal quarters in order to find said “secret”. It almost goes without saying that Millicent was the secret. </p><p>Upon realizing that all that Hux had been hiding was an unauthorized pet, Kylo Ren had taken her to Supreme Leader Snoke. Where he interrupted an important meeting between him and Hux. Snoke proved to be less than impressed with Kylo’s snooping and cared little to nothing about the cat. Hux had about wet his pants in sheer terror despite his calm exterior, he had been sure that he was about to see his beloved Millicent die a horrible death.  </p><p>Instead, Snoke promoted him to General (The youngest ever in The First Order!) and praised him for his excellent work on Starkiller Base despite the illegal “distraction” he had been housing in his quarters. Hux had been due for a promotion anyway, but Kylo’s actions gave his Master the perfect opportunity to rub his apprentice’s face in it and thus, stoke their rivalry further. </p><p>Millicent was beyond understanding any of this, but the event she witnessed would change her life and set the course for the next half of it. </p><p> </p><p>------------------</p><p>As Millicent was no longer a secret, Hux did not have to take pains to keep her in his quarters anymore. </p><p>But she didn’t get much time to explore Starkiller Base, because soon Hux had her packed up for a big move. Hux -Upon his promotion to General- had finally been given command of his own ship! The Finalizer was her name. A Star Destroyer bigger than most cities, it was quite the change of scenery for Millicent. </p><p>But she took it in stride. </p><p>Hux rather quickly “introduced” her to the crew and made it very clear to them that she was not to be harmed under any circumstances. He even fashioned what looked like a trinket on her collar, but was actually a tracking device. Which also granted Millicent access to nearly the whole of the ship! Relatively few areas were barred from her and Hux had chosen to forgo allowing her access to areas like hangers and engine rooms out of fear that his precious Milly would get herself hurt if she was allowed to wander into such hazardous places.  </p><p>Hux did modify the trinket later on to allow her access to Kylo Ren’s personal quarters. The knight had followed him and Milly to The Finalizer some months after they had first embarked on it, he became co-commander of the ship alongside Hux.  </p><p>And when Kylo came up to him a few days afterwards, stomping and screaming about how his cat had used his tray of ashes as a litter box…. Well, Hux wasn’t too upset about the consoles that were destroyed afterwards. It was worth it. </p><p>-------------</p><p>Millicent spent years aboard The Finalizer. Watching TIE-Fighters streak by on a great many different windows, accompanying Hux to work on the bridge with regularity, begging the chefs for tidbits and treats (Her figure ballooned quite a bit outwards until Hux put a stop to the practice), visiting the sick and the wounded in the ship’s medbays, hunting mouse droids through the hallways, making Captain Phasma’s acquaintance…. </p><p>She was a proper Ship’s Cat. She may have been General Hux’s personal pet, but the denizens of The Finalizer considered her an unofficial mascot of sorts. She had never received as many scritches and pets in her first year of life on Starkiller Base then she did on The Finalizer daily. A great many officers, technicians and ‘troopers alike loved her, those who couldn’t be bothered with her ignored her. </p><p>And the few who disliked her quickly found themselves keeping quiet after hearing about what Hux did to the only person who ever dared to attempt to harm Milly while she was onboard The Finalizer.  </p><p>---------</p><p>So of course, like all Ship’s Cats do, Millicent went ashore with the crew whenever the ship was at port. </p><p>Or rather, she did so once. Exactly once. Hux allowed her free roam over Starkiller Base whenever The Finalizer returned to her home port, but he had been adamant about never allowing Millicent to go off-ship while at any other port. Who knew what horrible fate could befall his precious baby girl if she got lost on a filthy planet?!</p><p>No, Hux always took care to lock Millicent up in his living quarters if he had to go ashore. He could only be certain of her safety that way until he was back on board and whatever dustball they had been stopped at was lightyears behind them. </p><p>This practice worked out very well. Much to Millicent’s dismay, as she had quickly grown used to being allowed near everywhere she pleased and didn’t take kindly to being cooped up for days on end anymore.  </p><p>Then came the day Kylo Ren deliberately let her out. Hux had grown complacent in the assumption of Milly’s safety, so Kylo took advantage when he finally saw an opportunity to get back at the young General. Millicent may have had a fondness for the darksider, but when he dumped her off in the middle of the seedy little city The Finalizer had been floating overhead on that day, he didn’t spare her a second glance.  </p><p>Millicent as was usual for her character, was not overly-distressed by this turn of events and quickly made a new friend. Seemingly the ugliest tom-cat ever known to man. He had a brutish head, scummy green eyes, moth-eaten black fur and a rusty sounding meow. And bald stub for a tail.</p><p>Hux would’ve been appalled to have seen his Milly in the mere presence of such a creature. </p><p>But to Millicent, he was handsome. And she suddenly realized that she had finally found what she had been looking all these years for.</p><p>----------  </p><p>It didn’t take long for Hux to find her, but by the time he did, the deed was already done.  </p><p>-----------</p><p>Sixty-five cycles later, Millicent gave birth in General Hux’s bed. More specifically, she brought her two little miracles into the world right next to Hux’s head. Hux (Who hadn’t even known that she was pregnant, despite forcing The Finalizer’s head medic into giving her a health exam immediately after retrieving her from the dustball Kylo Ren had dumped her on) woke up tacky from the blood and afterbirth and was needless to say, extremely surprised. </p><p>The newest members of the family were thankfully healthy and the only hint of who their sire was their stubby little tails. Hux fell in love with them almost as quickly as he had fallen in love with their mother, naturally. Despite the ruined linens and interrupted sleep.</p><p>The young General did not get to enjoy their presence for very long though. Because while Millicent was initially relieved in the primitive way only a cat can be to return to her homeworld to give birth, she had quickly sensed that something very bad was going to happen soon. Now a mother, the survival of her orange son and tortoiseshell daughter was her only priority.  </p><p>She had spent many happy years under Hux’s care and having him be there for her at her most vulnerable hour had been invaluable, but she knew that she would have to take her kittens away to safety and leave him behind in doing so. She had no way of communicating this to Hux, but if she had, perhaps he would’ve spared a thought to going with her. He did love her so.  </p><p>------------</p><p>There are many tales of Ship’s cats abandoning their doomed vessels before calminity struck. Many have dismissed those tales as fanciful, if not outright fabricated. </p><p>Millicent proved that there might be some truth to those old stories after all.  </p><p>She did get off of Starkiller Base before the planet turned weapon was destroyed. During a rare moment where Hux was away from her, she quietly and quickly grabbed her kittens and stashed them aboard a nondescript shipping vessel. They were well away by the time The Resistance launched it’s attack against the base in retaliation for the destruction of the Hosnian System. </p><p>General Hux never saw his beloved Milly or her two adorable babies ever again.</p>
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